Sydney Olympic Games, 2000 | australia.gov.au Sydney Olympic Games, 2000 The exceptionally well-organised Sydney Games were a true celebration of Olympic values and sporting excellence. Olympic Committee The Sydney Olympic Games were held from 15 September to 1 October 2000. Sydney was awarded the right to host the 2000 Olympic Games in 1993. It was the second time that an Australian city had hosted the Olympic Games, the first being in Melbourne in 1956. The first Olympic Games of the modern era were held in Athens in 1896 following the founding of the International Olympic Committee in 1894. The Olympics began in Greece about 3,500 years ago but were discontinued in 393 AD. In 1887, Baron Pierre de Coubertin came up with the idea of reviving the Olympics. At the Sydney 2000 Olympics there were 199 competing countries and four individual athletes from East Timor who marched in the parade of nations.

There were 10,651 athletes (4,069 women, 6,582 men). There were 300 events. One of the extraordinary characteristics of the Sydney Olympics was the number of volunteers, 46,967, which had grown from an original group of 500, honoured in a parade through the city after the games. The extent of interest world-wide in the Olympics is reflected in the 16,033 accredited media people (5,298 written press, 10,735 broadcasters). Highlights – 100 years of women's participation Cathy Freeman wins gold in the 400m. Image courtesy of the ABC. Sydney 2000 celebrated 100 years of women's participation in the Olympic Games. The Triathlon made its Olympic debut with the women's race as the first event. Brigitte McMahon of Switzerland swam, cycled and ran to win gold and beat the favoured Australian athlete Michelie Jones who won silver. McMahon only passed Jones in sight of the finish line. Taekwondo was another new addition to the Olympic programme.

Australian Lauren Burns, won gold in taekwondo, women's -49kg. Roared on by home fans, Burns surged ahead to 4-2 in the second round after being tied at the end of first round. Susanthika Jayasinghe became the first Sri Lankan woman to win a medal, claiming bronze in the 200m, whilst Birgit Fischer of Germany earned two gold medals in kayaking to become the first woman in any sport to win medals 20 years apart, having won gold at the Moscow, Barcelona and Atlanta Olympic Games. Women also took part in weightlifting and the modern pentathlon for the very first time. Australian Maria Pekli, won silver in judo for the women's 57kg. Other Australian women gold medal winners included Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst for beach volleyball, and Jenny Armstrong and Belinda Stowell for sailing, in the women's 470 class. The Australian women's hockey, softball and water polo teams also showed their excellence in winning gold. Opening ceremony and Olympic Flame Sydney 200 opening ceremony. Image courtesy of the ABC.

The opening ceremony began with a tribute to Australian culture, history and identity with over 120 Australian stock horses stepping out, paying tribute to Australian stockmen. Performances that followed included references to the arrival of the First Fleet, immigration and rural industry as well as a large display of lawnmowers and an Australian Hill's hoist clothes line representing domestic life and ingenuity. Music and performance highlights of the opening were two hundred (200) Indigenous women from Central Australia dancing to cleanse and protect the Games and hundreds of tap-dancing teenagers. Olivia Newton-John and John Farnham sang the duet 'Dare to Dream' while walking among the athletes. Torres Strait Islander Christine Anu sang 'My Island Home' and the Australian National Anthem was sung by the boy band Human Nature with the second verse sung by Julie Anthony. The games were opened by the Australian Governor-General Sir William Deane with the Olympic Flag carried around the arena by eight former Australian Olympic champions: Bill Roycroft, Murray Rose, Liane Tooth, Gillian Rolton, Marjorie Jackson, Lorraine Crapp, Michael Wenden and Nick Green. Cathy Freeman lighting the Olympic Flame. Image courtesy of the ABC.

The opening ceremony concluded with the lighting of the Olympic Flame. Former Australian Olympic champion Herb Elliott brought the Olympic Flame into the stadium. Then, celebrating 100 years of women's participation in the Olympic Games, former Australian women Olympic champions: Betty Cuthbert and Raelene Boyle, Dawn Fraser, Shirley Strickland (later Shirley Strickland de la Hunty), Shane Gould and Debbie Flintoff-King brought the torch through the stadium, handing it over to Cathy Freeman. The longest ever Olympic torch relay brought the Olympic flame from Greece to Sydney. After travelling through the South Pacific, the flame was carried around Australia for 100 days. Cathy Freeman, an Australian athlete, had the honour of lighting the Olympic torch, lighting the flame in the cauldron within a circle of fire. This emotional moment helped symbolise the desire to reconcile with the Aboriginal populations of Australia. Ten days later, she won the 400m final before an ecstatic crowd. Sports and Australian medal winners Australian's medal tally reflected its strengths in swimming, boating (rowing, sailing and kayak), cycling, shooting, horse-riding, archery and tennis. These are sporting traditions well developed as national past-times in Australia over two hundred years.

Indigenous athlete Cathy Freeman's win of the women's 400 metres run also reflected the elegance, strength and rhythm inherent in Freeman's talent, determination and dedication as an athlete, showcasing Australia's Indigenous athletic skills. Swimmer Ian Thorpe Ian Thorpe wins the men's 400m Freestyle gold. Image courtesy of the ABC. After competing in just two Olympic Games, Ian Thorpe became the most decorated Australian swimmer in Olympic history. Ian Thorpe entered the 2000 Sydney Games being just 17 years old. Racing in the 400m freestyle on the first day of competition, he won the gold medal and broke his own world record. Thorpe was nicknames 'the Thorpedo' by the media. Just one hour later, Thorpe beat Gary Hall Jr of the US in a thrilling finish to the 4x100m freestyle relay. However, in a surprise result, he had to settle for silver behind Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands in the 200m freestyle [with half a second difference in the time]. Thorpe finished the Sydney Games with a haul of three gold and two silver medals.

Swimming Swimming was a highlight for Australia, winning medals in seventeen events. Another Australian gold medal winner was Susie O'Neill, winning the women's 200m freestyle swimming. Grant Hackett won gold in the 1500 metres men's freestyle beating rival Australian swimmer Kieran Perkins, one of the world's best-ever long-distance swimmers, Perkins having won two Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996. Silver medal winners in the swimming included: Grand Hackett winning the 1500 metres freestyle gold. Image courtesy of the ABC.

Regan Harrison, Geoff Huegill, Michael Klim, Matt Welsh, Ryan Mitchell, Adam Pine, Josh Watson, Ian Thorpe, men's 4x100m medley relay Leisel Jones, women's 100m breaststroke Susie O'Neill, women's 200m butterfly Susie O'Neill, Giann Rooney, Petria Thomas, Kirsten Thomson, Elka Graham, Jacinta Van Lint, women's 4x200m freestyle relay Keiren Perkins, men's 1500m freestyle Ian Thorpe, men's 200m freestyle Matt Welsh, men's 100m backstroke Bronze medal winners in the swimming showed strong form in the butterfly and backstroke: Geoff Huegill, men's 100m butterfly Justin Norris, men's 200m butterfly Petria Thomas, women's 200m butterfly Matt Welsh, men's 200m backstroke The swimming medal tally was complemented by Bronze medals for synchronised diving with Rebecca Gilmore and Loudy Tourky, in the women's, 10m platform and Robert Newberry, with Dean Pullar in the men's

 3m springboard event.

Rowing, sailing and kayak Rowing featured strongly with silver for Darren Balmforth, Simon Burgess, Anthony Edwards and Robert Richards for the men's lightweight coxless four. The rowing men's eight also won silver. Tom King and Mark Turnbull won silver in the men's 470 class in sailing. Daniel Collins and Andrew Trim won silver in the kayak, for the men's K2 500 metres race. Michael Diamond wins men's trap shooting gold. Image courtesy of the ABC. Bronze medals in rowing, sailing and kayak for Australia went to: Matthew Lang, James Tomkins, rowing, men's coxless pair Michael Blackburn, sailing, laser class Katrin Borchert, kayak, women's K1 500m. Cycling - Individual and team efforts Australia showed its strength in cycling with medals across five classes. Gold was won by Brett Aitken and Scott McGrory, for men's madison. A silver medal was won by Michelle Ferris for cycling in the women's 500m trial.

Bronze medal winners in cycling were: Sean Eadie, Darryn Hill and Gary Neiwand, team sprint Shane Kelly, men's 1km time trial Brad McGee, men's 4000m individual pursuit. Phillip Dutton on House Doctor winning gold in the 3 day Equestrian event. Image courtesy of the ABC. Shooting, archery and equestrian In an exciting and nerve wracking shoot, Michael Diamond won gold for men's trap shooting, with team mate Russell Mark, winning silver for men's double trap. Annemarie Forder won bronze for shooting in women's 10m air pistol. Simon Fairweather won silver in archery for the men's individual. Phillip Dutton, Andrew Hoy, Stuart Tinney and Matt Ryan won gold in the 3-day equestrian team event and Andrew Hoy won silver in the individual three-day equestrian event, following a strong showing winning medals in the previous Olympics in Atlanta. Tennis doubles The Woodies. Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge with their silver medals. Image courtesy of the ABC.

To top it off, another strong doubles pair, amongst the other team medallists, the 'two Woodies' Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, won silver for tennis in men's doubles. Marathon The marathon was one of the original modern Olympic events in 1896, though the distance did not become standardized until 1921. The distance commemorated the run of the Greek messenger Pheidippides from the Battle of Marathon to Athens as a symbol of the link between the modern and the ancient Olympics. The official distance is 42.195 kilometres (26 miles and 385 yards). The tradition of the marathon being the last event of the games was continued in Sydney with the Men's Marathon contested on a course that started in North Sydney, heading across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to finish in the stadium prior to the closing ceremony. In Sydney 2000, the event was won by Ethiopian Genzhnge Abera, with Eric Wananina second and Tesefe Tola, also of Ethiopia third. It was the first time since the 1968 Olympics that an Ethiopian had won the gold medal in this event.

The Festivals – national and international arts The tradition of cultural festivities and the Olympic Games stems from the philosophy of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who saw the Games as an expression of the excellence of both mind and body. A cultural program is not an optional extra. It is a requirement. The Charter of the Modern Olympic Games requires the host city and country to present a program of national and international arts. Sydney chose to present a series of Olympic Arts Festivals over the four years of the Cultural Olympiad (1997-2000), each with a different theme and emphasis. The Festival of the Dreaming. 1997 – The Festival of the Dreaming Artistic Director, Rhoda Roberts oversaw the extensive Festival of the Dreaming from 14 September to 6 October 1997 in Sydney, one of the largest indigenous arts festivals yet to be held in the world. The festival had 30 exhibitions, 14 dance and theatre productions, eight performance troupes, 50 films, a literature program, three concerts and a number of special commissions.

The Festival of the Dreaming, the first of its kind in Australia, celebrated the world's indigenous cultures, especially those of the Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Events in Centennial Park entranced audiences entering the park at night - the trees alive with the sound of birds as the country would have heard them at the time of colonisation - stepping through fire lit paths to encounter hovering Mimi spirits in mid-air, glimpsed as ethereal figures on stilts. The Festival of the Dreaming promoted a greater awareness and appreciation of Australia's Indigenous heritage to visitors. Most of the content was Australian, with additional representation from indigenous cultures from around the world, including the United States of America, Canada, Greenland, Korea, New Zealand, Western Samoa and Papua New Guinea. The festival explored the experience of indigenous people from its earliest origins to the impact of other cultures. Many of the projects from The Festival of the Dreaming toured nationally in 1998. 1998 – A Sea Change A Sea Change was the second Olympic Arts Festival held in the lead up to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Artistic director, Andrea Stretton selected a wide range of events from all states and territories, communities large and small.

Combined, they focused on 'transformations in Australian culture', and celebrated Australia's development into a multicultural society and the impact of immigration. 1999 – Reaching the World The third festival was also directed by Andrea Stretton. It took examples of Australian visual and performing arts to the rest of the world, expressing the unique spirit of Australia's cultural life. 2000 – Harbour of Life For the 2000 Sydney Olympic Arts Festival, the director, Leo Scofield brought together six weeks of sounds and spectacles in areas of: symphony, opera, dance, jazz, cabaret, choral music, visual arts exhibitions, film and photography. The performances included many world premieres as well as especially commissioned works from Australian and international artists. It was presented as a global program with global events. Useful links The amazing story of the Olympic flame - Olympic News The amazing story of the Olympic flame twitter Share It has been right around the world, gone into space and scaled Everest. Over the last 80 years, the Olympic torch has been carried by hundreds of thousands of people and travelled on every imaginable form of transport, though mostly by foot. Here, we recount the epic tale of the Olympic torch relay.

The Olympic flame made its first appearance of the modern era at Amsterdam 1928, where it was lit atop a tower overlooking the Olympic Stadium, the venue for the athletics events. It also presided over the scene at Los Angeles’s Olympic Stadium four years later, this time at the top of the gateway to the arena, which resembled the Arc de Triomphe. IOC It was not until Berlin 1936, however, that the Olympic torch relay – the brainchild of the university lecturer and sports theorist Carl Diem – was first staged. As continues to be the custom today, the flame was lit in Olympia, Greece, in the same way as it was in ancient times, with the aid of a parabolic mirror reflecting the sun’s rays. Attending the lighting ceremony was Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Games, who wished the runners taking part in the inaugural relay every success. The idea of using a torch to transport the flame was not adopted straightaway. Taking inspiration from ancient ways, the Organising Committee of the Berlin Games had initially planned to convey the flame by means of a bundle of slow-burning fennel stalks.

For practical reasons, however, it was finally decided to use a torch for the job, with the Organising Committee requesting the creation of a specific design, given that there were no torches on the market capable of meeting their criteria. IOC The first torchbearer on that maiden Relay was the Greek Konstantinos Kondylis, with Germany’s Fritz Schilgen the 3,075th and last. On its journey between Olympia and Berlin, the torch made its way through Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia, finally reaching the Olympic Stadium on 1 August 1936. In the years that followed, the story of the Olympic flame began to unfold like an epic novel, with each Olympiad producing its own unique tales, played out by a cast of hundreds of thousands of runners over distances both great and small and on every possible form of transport. For its part, the London 1948 Torch Relay was completed almost entirely on foot, with 1,416 torch-bearers carrying the flame from Olympia to Corfu and on to Italy, from Bari in the south to Milan in the north.

After crossing the Swiss border it reached Lausanne, where a special ceremony was held before the tomb of De Coubertin. From there the flame travelled on to eastern France, Luxembourg, Brussels and Calais, taking a boat across the Channel, disembarking in Dover and finally reaching London on 29 July. The final leg of the Relay saw it being carried from Wembley Stadium, where the cauldron was lit, to Torquay, the venue for the sailing competitions. IOC The flame goes global The flame went airborne for the first time on the Helsinki 1952 Torch Relay, flying to the Danish city of Aalborg following an initial journey between Olympia and Athens. After making its way across Denmark and into Sweden, it passed through Gothenburg and Stockholm and then crossed the Finnish border at Tornio. From there it was borne to Tampere and on to Helsinki, the final destination of a 7,492 km journey involving a grand total of 3,042 runners, the last of them being Hanne Koelhmainen, a multiple Olympic track and field medallist. IOC The Melbourne 1956 Torch Relay was unique in two ways.

Firstly, it was the first to venture into the southern hemisphere, travelling from Singapore to Djakarta before taking to the air and calling in at a number of cities around Asia. On reaching Darwin, it flew on to Cairns and was then carried all the way along the Pacific coast to Melbourne. Secondly, with the equestrian events being held in Stockholm that year, a separate relay took the flame from Olympia to Athens, from where it was flown to Copenhagen, Malmo and on to the Swedish capital, where, for the one and only time in Olympic history, a second cauldron was lit, a small matter of 15,600 km away from Melbourne. IOC Taking centre stage in the Rome 1960 Torch Relay were a number of ancient sites in Greece, Sicily, Reggio Calabria, Taranto, Naples and Rome, the idea being to put the spotlight on the Greek and Roman civilisations and highlight the link between the modern and ancient Games. This was also the first relay to be televised.

IOC Following stages in Istanbul, Beirut, Tehran, Lahore, New Delhi, Kolkata, Rangoon, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Hong Kong and Taipei, the Tokyo 1964 Torch Relay bore the flame to Okinawa, the largest of Japan’s southern islands. Its next destination was Kagoshima, situated at one end of the country’s main island of Honshu, at which point it branched off in four different directions, covering the whole of the country, all the way up to Chitose, on the island of Hokkaido. Finally, on 9 September 1964, the last torch-bearers came together in front of Tokyo’s Imperial Palace to light a cauldron, with a final leg then taking the flame to the city’s Olympic Stadium, where the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron went to Yoshinori Sakai. Nicknamed “Baby Hiroshima” on account of having been born in the southern city on 6 August 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped there, Sakai was a fitting choice as the final torch-bearer, symbolising, as he did, both peace and hope.

IOC The Mexico City 1968 Torch Relay used four different torches and was inspired by the adventures of the Genoa- born Christopher Columbus, the first explorer from the western world to set foot in the New World, which he “discovered” it in the name of Isabella Queen of Spain in 1492. Following the now-traditional stage between Olympia and Athens, the flame arrived in Genoa, where a ceremony was held in front of the house where Columbus lived. Its next port of call was Barcelona, the legendary explorer’s destination on his return from the Americas. The flame was carried across Spain to Palos, from where Columbus set sail westwards on 3 August 1492. The last torch-bearer on this section of the Relay was a direct descendant of his by the name of Cristo¥bal Colo¥n de Carbajal. After crossing the Atlantic, the flame arrived in San Salvador in the Bahamas, where Columbus first landed, believing he had arrived in the Indies via a new sea route.

IOC From there the Relay moved on to Veracruz in Mexico, passing through Teotihuacan, the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, where a ceremony was staged in front of more than 50,000 spectators. Finally, on 12 October 1968, the cauldron was lit at Mexico City’s Olympic Stadium by the athlete Enriqueta Basilio Sotelo, the very first time in the history of the Games that a woman was given the honour of doing so. From Munich 1972 to Seoul 1988 On 28 July 1972 the flame set off from Olympia for a Relay that would cover 5,532 km and involve 6,200 torch- bearers. Its final destination was Munich, the host city of the XX Olympiad of the modern era. En route it took in Athens and Thessaloniki, made a detour to Istanbul and then headed to Germany via Varna in Bulgaria, Bucharest in Romania, Belgrade in Yugoslavia, Budapest in Hungary and Vienna in Austria.

The flame also stopped off in Innsbruck and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, both of them former Winter Games host cities. It was eventually greeted in Munich at a special reception ceremony at the Ko®nigsplatz, attended by 20,000 spectators. Representing Europe at the Opening Ceremony, the final torch-bearer, Gu®nther Zahn, was joined by runners from the four other continents: Kipchoge Keino (representing Africa), Jim Ryun (America), Kenji Kimihara (Asia) and Derek Clayton (Oceania). Separate flames were then carried to Kiel, the venue of the sailing events, and Augsburg, where the rowing competitions were held. IOC The Montreal 1976 Torch Relay saw an amazing technological development. On the evening of the flame’s arrival in Athens from Olympia, a ceremony was staged at the Panathinaiko Stadium, where the flame was positioned in front of a sensor that detected ionised particles from it. Converted into encoded impulses, they were then sent them via satellite to Ottawa.

On the arrival of the signal in the Canadian capital, a laser beam reflected on a parabolic mirror recreated the flame in its original form in a cauldron situated on Parliament Hill. The first kilometre of the Canadian section of the Relay was completed by 12 runners representing the ten provinces and two territories that formed the country at the time, each of them carrying a torch with the flame. At the end of their legs, the 12 runners came together and passed the flame on to another runner. In making its way from the capital to Montreal, the Relay flanked the Ottawa River, passing from one bank to another along the way. The flame’s arrival at the Olympic Stadium saw another piece of history, with two people lighting the cauldron for the first time: Sarah Anderson, an English-speaking Canadian from Toronto, and Stéphane Préfontaine, a French-speaking compatriot from Montreal.

IOC Starting on 19 June 1980 in Olympia and reaching its conclusion on 19 July at Moscow’s Lenin Stadium, the Torch Relay of the XXII Olympiad was completed entirely on foot and took a northerly route, with some 5,435 torch-bearers ferrying it safely through Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, and a crowd of 40,000 turning up to see it in Bucharest. The Olympic flame entered the Soviet Union at Chisinau, on the Romanian border, and made its way up to Moscow via Kiev and Belgorod. On the very eve of the Games, a cauldron was lit in Sovietskaya Square, with four separate torches then being lit and carried to the subsites of Tallinn, Leningrad, Minsk and Kiev. IOC The Los Angeles 1984 Torch Relay crossed the United States from east to west on a winding, 15,000-km route. Lit in Olympia on 7 May, the flame flew to New York 24 hours later.

Waiting for it there, in front of the United Nations Headquarters, were the Relay’s first two torch-bearers, Gina Hemphill and Bill Thorpe Jr, respective descendants of the legendary athletes Jesse Owens and Jim Thorpe. In the weeks that followed the flame was carried through 33 states in all, as well as Washington D.C. After moving through the south, from Dallas to Texas, and heading as far north as Seattle in Washington State, the flame arrived at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the Opening Ceremony on 28 July 1984, where the 1960 Olympic decathlon champion Rafer Johnson climbed 96 steps to light the cauldron. The very same cauldron that had been used at the 1932 Games – also held in the Californian city – it stood over 45 metres high. IOC After making the journey from Greece to Bangkok ahead of Seoul 1988, the flame arrived on Korean soil on the island of Jeju, to the south of the peninsula, from where it sailed to the port of Busan on a ship named Olympia 88.

Involving 1,467 people of all ages, among them celebrities, artists and athletes, the Torch Relay that followed saw the flame travel right across the Republic of Korea on foot and by car, bike, motorbike and horse on a zigzagging route from east to west and north to south, finally arriving in Seoul in the suburb of Incheon. IOC Held on 17 September at the city’s Olympic Stadium, the Olympic Ceremony saw the last three torch- bearers – Won Takkim, Sun Manchung and Mi Chungsohn – lifted 22 metres into the air on a special elevator in order to light the cauldron, which measured 5.5 metres in diameter and was perched on top of an eight-sided pole. Relay goes galactic No one who saw it could ever forget the lighting of the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony of Barcelona 1992, held on 25 July. Taking up position in the centre of the Montjuic Olympic Stadium, Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo took hold of a burning arrow lit by the flame and fired it at the cauldron, setting light to it.

Prior to that memorable moment, the Barcelona Torch Relay had seen the flame travel from Olympia to Athens and then hitch a ride on the frigate Catalun~a all the way to the ancient Greek settlement of Empuries, in Catalonia. Covering a distance of 5,940 km, a total of 9,484 torchbearers (8,885 runners and 599 cyclists) then took the torch through 652 cities, towns and villages, including the capitals of the Spain’s 17 autonomous regions. The Relay also took in the Canary Islands and the Balearics. IOC Atlanta 1996 marked the centenary of the modern Games, a landmark celebrated by the initial relay from Olympia to Athens, which was followed by a ceremony at the Panathinaiko Stadium, where representatives of the host cities of the 17 previous Olympic Summer Games each received a lamp containing the Olympic flame, which they duly took home with them so that tribute could be paid to it.

The starting point for the American leg of the Relay was Los Angeles, from where it embarked on a 26,875-km journey around the country, with some 12,467 torchbearers taking part. The Atlanta 1996 Torch Relay also saw the flame go into space for the first time, aboard the shuttle Columbia. Following its return to Earth, boxing great Muhammad Ali provided the highlight of the Opening Ceremony at the city’s Olympic Stadium on 19 July 1996, taking hold of the torch and lighting the cauldron with it. IOC What made the Sydney 2000 Torch Relay unique was the fact that it took place mostly at sea, with the torch voyaging from one Pacific island or nation to the next en route to Australia: from Guam to New Zealand, from Papua New Guinea to the Cook Islands, from Micronesia to Tonga, and from Vanuatu to Samoa. In late June that year, the flame even went beneath the waves for an underwater leg at the Great Barrier Reef. A special torch also went up into space, with the shuttle Atlantis conveying it all the way to the International Space Station.

IOC When it finally reached Australia, 11,000 torch-bearers took it on a tour of the entire country. In the crowning moment of the Opening Ceremony at the Olympic Stadium on 15 September 2000, the 100th anniversary of the admission of women to the Olympics was marked by the appearance of seven of Australia’s greatest female athletes. Bethy Cuthbert, Raelene Boyle, Dawn Fraser, Shirley Strickland, Shane Gould and Debbie Flintoff-King each took turns to carry the torch before Indigenous Australian track and field star Cathy Freeman completed the very last leg, climbing a flight of steps, stepping into a circular pool of water and light a ring of flame, which then rose into the air above her, as fireworks soared into the Sydney night sky. The Torch Relay that hailed the return of the Games to Athens in 2004 was the first to go right around the world, across the five continents, mirroring the five Olympic rings.

Its numerous ports of call included all the host cities of the modern era, a host of the world’s other great cities and, in a first for the relay, Africa, with the torch travelling between Cairo in the north and Cape Town in the south. On finally reaching Greece, the flame embarked on a final tour that lasted a little over a month, setting off from Crete and taking in 32 islands and 24 historic sites across the country’s 54 prefectures. The man given the task of lighting the Olympic cauldron at the Opening Ceremony on 13 August 2004 was 1996 Olympic windsurfing champion Níkos Kaklamanákis. IOC On its way to Beijing in 2008, the torch made it right to the top of the world, with a team of climbers taking it to the summit of Everest via the Chinese side. Prior to that the flame had travelled the five continents and been relayed through 19 major cities, including St Petersburg, London, Paris, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, New Delhi, Bangkok, Dar es Salaam, Canberra, Nagano and Seoul.

After then arriving at Hong Kong, it passed through 31 Chinese provinces and autonomous regions before reaching Sichuan, which had been hit by a devastating earthquake on 12 May. Then, at the end of an Opening Ceremony held at the Bird’s Nest on 8 August 2008, and which had got under way at 8.08 p.m. on the dot, the final torch-bearer, legendary Chinese gymnast Li Ning, was hoisted on a cable up to the giant screen encircling the stadium roof. After completing a full airborne lap of the stadium, he lit the cauldron to the roars of the crowd. IOC The London 2012 Torch Relay, the last before Rio 2016, began with an eight-day tour of Greece and continued at Land’s End, the extreme southwestern point of the British Isles, with sailing icon Ben Ainslie the first to bear the torch in a Relay that featured a cast of runners dressed all in white and which went by the name of “Moment to Shine”.

Unfolding on water (in myriad craft that included rowing boats, yachts and steam ships), rail, road and by air, it followed a course that passed within no more than an hour of 95 percent of the population of the UK, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. On the day of the Opening Ceremony, the flame was ferried from Tower Bridge to the Olympic Stadium by speedboat, with David Beckham and the young footballer Jade Bailey clutching the torch, which they then passed on to five-time Olympic rowing champion Sir Steven Redgrave. Symbolising the generational handover, he then passed the flame on to seven young athletes aged between 16 and 19 (Callum Airlie, Jordan Duckitt, Desiree Henry, Katie Kirk, Cameron MacRitchie, Aidan Reynolds and Adelle Tracey), who had the honour of lighting a cauldron formed by 204 copper petals representing all the nations taking part at the Games.

IOC An Aboriginal Star Carries Olympic Torch : A Symbolic Flame, a Symbolic Runner - The New York Times The New York Times World |An Aboriginal Star Carries Olympic Torch : A Symbolic Flame, a Symbolic Runner Search An Aboriginal Star Carries Olympic Torch : A Symbolic Flame, a Symbolic Runner By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY and INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE JUNE 9, 2000 MELBOURNE— Walk through the modest front door of Nova Peris-Kneebone's Victorian home and you soon come face to frame with a picture of Muhammad Ali standing on a stage next to Peris-Kneebone's young daughter, Jessica. "Melbourne 1998 just after the Commonwealth Games," Peris-Kneebone explained proudly earlier this year. "He was in a boxing ring here for an appearance, and the people who brought him here, they introduced us to Muhammad and brought Jessie up on stage, and you know he has this affiliation with children. So he went straight up to Jessie and held her hand and would not let it go.

It was unbelievable, a very special moment." But there is more linking Ali and Peris-Kneebone than a small child's grasp. In 1996, when the Summer Olympics were last held, Ali was the last person to carry the torch. Trembling from Parkinson's disease, he lit the Olympic flame during the Opening Ceremony in Atlanta, sending goose bumps down Peris-Kneebone's and a lot of other spines. Continue reading the main story Nearly four years later, it was her turn to play a leading role. On Thursday, when the flame arrived in Australia at the sacred Aboriginal site of Uluru to begin a 100-day tour of the sprawling continent before reaching Sydney, Peris-Kneebone was the first Australian to carry it when it was unloaded from the plane. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Barefoot, and shivering in a cold desert wind, she had to wait while the torch was twice relit from a back-up torch before setting off with the glowing red monolith dubbed Ayers Rock by the white European settlers — but long called Uluru by the Aborigines — looming telegenically in the background.

Sydney Olympic organizers, eager to project an inclusive and updated vision of Australia, found her multifaceted, multicultural background irresistible even though other Australian athletes have accomplished more. The day passed without Aboriginal protest, but leaders say there will be protests during the games in Sydney. "To be an Aboriginal person myself and to carry that flame — the world's going to be talking and it's a chance for us to tell the world about our culture," Peris-Kneebone said. "You get so many opportunities in sport, but this is a once in a lifetime." Asked why she was wearing no shoes on a cold winter's morning, Peris-Kneebone said: "I thought about it a couple of weeks ago. My ancestors never wore shoes and it's a sign of respect for my people — they've given me strength to get to where I have today and that's why I chose to run barefoot." "It's an honor," Peris-Kneebone said after her run. "I've had so many other honors in my life, I guess, on the sporting field, and winning young Australian of the year." But, "This will never happen again.

And to have the honor of the first Australian when there have been so many outstanding Australians over the past 50, 60 years that could've had this honor, to be the chosen one, if you like is probably something that I'll sit back and have a good cry about." - THERE IS MORE to it than her rich brown skin; there is the content of her character and of her résumé. At 29, Peris-Kneebone is a mother, an artist and a world-class sportswoman in the midst of a career change. In 1996 in Atlanta, she became the first athlete of Aboriginal descent (she also has Filipino and European ancestors) to win an Olympic gold medal as a member of the Australian women's field hockey team. Several months later, she retired from hockey and decided to train to become an elite sprinter. "If I was to show you my scrapbook as a kid, track and field was my first love," she said.

"And that's what I'm going after this year: my first childhood love." Advertisement Continue reading the main story After surprising the field and herself to win the gold medal in the 200 meters at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, the quadrennial competition for territories ruled by the British Empire, she is focusing her energies on the 200 and the 400 in the lead-up to the much more competitive races in Sydney. Though her chances of an individual gold medal are extremely slim — her goal is to reach a final — she and an even more prominent Aboriginal runner, Cathy Freeman, could win a medal together if Peris-Kneebone manages to qualify for the 4-by-400 relay. "I think she can do it," said Freeman, who won a silver medal in the 400 in Atlanta and has won the last two world titles over the distance. "No matter what happens, I have a lot of respect for Nova, because she's very courageous. She chases her dreams." The chase has sometimes resembled an obstacle course.

Born in February 1971, Peris-Kneebone and her younger sister were raised by their mother, a single parent, in a small house in Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory. When Peris-Kneebone was 10, her mother remarried and, according to Peris-Kneebone, the atmosphere changed drastically. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy "My stepfather was a policeman, a very hard, strict man," she said. "I was really stubborn as a kid and him coming into our lives at such a late stage, he was stubborn and I was stubborn and he had to sort of chase me down to grab hold of me. There was none of that 'sit in the corner and face the wall' kind of thing. I was always being chased across the road with a strap. But he was fair. He hated lying, so as a kid, if you ever told a fib, you got the belt.

If you told the truth, it was fine." At 13, largely because of a dearth of track and field programs in Darwin, Peris-Kneebone focused her energies on field hockey, a popular sport throughout Australia, and was soon one of the best prospects in the country, but in 1990, at 19, she gave birth to Jessica. "The whole 12 months after Jessie was born, I was just happy being a mum," she said. "It wasn't until 1991 that I thought, 'The dream is still there: If you want, you can go after it."' The following year, she moved to the western city of Perth, where the national hockey team trains. She took a job with the Australian telephone company and juggled day care, practice and part-time employment while Jessica's father and Peris-Kneebone's future husband, Sean Kneebone, remained in Darwin attempting to build a career of his own. "I'd put Jessie up in the stands with her coloring books or dolls and a little lunch box and drinks," Peris-Kneebone said.

"There were times on Tuesday evenings, I'd have psychology meetings and she'd come and sit underneath the table with a coloring book and the other girls in the room wouldn't even know she was there. She was just so quiet and did her own thing. She'll be one of those people when she gets older who will love sport or hate it, because she's seen the hard work that goes into me achieving, seen all the highs and lows." For now, the Kneebones divide their time between their rented house full of photographs in Melbourne and their family and spiritual base in Darwin. Aboriginal people comprise approximately 2 percent of Australia's population of about 19 million, but they constitute about 20 percent of the population in the Northern Territory and own about one-fourth of the property because of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act passed in 1976. Advertisement Continue reading the main story - ABORIGINAL landowners are called "traditional owners" in Australia, and Peris-Kneebone is a traditional owner in Kakadu National Park, where she often fishes, camps and hunts with her family.

As a custodian of the land, Peris-Kneebone is in regular contact with tribal elders, including her biological father, with whom she had virtually no contact until he came to visit her after Jessica's birth. Her father lives a traditional, semi-nomadic Aboriginal lifestyle. "It's funny. I spent 18 years apart from him, and yet we are so much alike in so many ways," she said. "I never see him with a watch on his wrist because time doesn't matter. He's lived out in really harsh places on the Coburg Peninsula, living off the land." It is on her people's land and with her father that Peris-Kneebone has worked through her problems in the last two years. First came her post-Commonwealth depression in late 1998, when she quickly grew weary of the interest in her private life that accompanied her increased celebrity and considered returning to the more anonymous existence of a hockey team member. More recently, her father helped soothe her concerns about the political role she should play as first torchbearer and Aboriginal Olympic hopeful.

"He told me," Peris-Kneebone said, "'Your job is to run fast, and I want you to know that you have the blessing of all the Aboriginal elders and the people to do your job. You don't have to worry about the rest. That's us. We'll carry the rest.' It was a huge weight off my shoulders." When she's asked what message she wants to convey to the world before the Olympics, she harks back to a conversation she and Sean had not long ago with one of the grizzled elders from Kakadu known as Old Man Bill. The conversation started out being about Peris-Kneebone's gold medals, but it ended up being about something more universal. "All of the sudden he sort of looked at Sean and said, 'Do you want to learn?' " Peris-Kneebone said.

"And Sean told him, 'Yeah I want to learn,' and Old Man Bill told him, 'No matter what color skin you got, we all got the same color blood."' Cathy Freeman Shop Cathy Freeman Cathy Freeman (1973 - present) is a former Olympic gold medal winning Australian sprinter, who specialised in and won the women's 400 metres event at the 2000 Summer Olympics. She became well known around the world when she lit the Olympic Flame in those Olympic Games. Cathy retired from athletics in 2003 at the age of 30 and is now involved in many community and charitable ventures. Fun fact: Cathy won her first gold medal at the age of 8, at a school athletics competition. When she was still very young she dreamed of being the world's best female athlete and winning a gold medal at the Olympics. "It all comes down to having the confidence to be who you are." Cathy Freeman Cathy Freeman (Sprinter) - Pics, Videos, Dating, & News Cathy Freeman Australian Sprinter Female Catherine Astrid Salome "Cathy" Freeman, OAM is a former Australian sprinter, who specialised in the 400Â metres event.

She became the Olympic champion for the women's 400Â metres at the 2000 Summer Olympics, at which she lit the Olympic Flame. Freeman was the first ever Aboriginal Commonwealth Games gold medalist at age 16 in 1990. 1994 was her breakthrough season. At the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada, Freeman won gold in both the 200Â m and 400Â m.… Read More related links On A Run For Peace Busselton Mail - Jun 12, 2013 'BUSSELTON mayor Ian Stubbs has received an honour previously given to Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Muhammad Ali, Desmond Tutu and <mark>Cathy Freeman</mark>.' An Aussie Finally Masters It At Augusta Fox News - Apr 15, 2013 ' Greg Norman almost couldn\'t stand to watch. The Great White Shark had circled around the elusive green jacket too many times without being able to wear it. \n Pam Scott was on the other side of the world, trying to catch every agonizing moment. \n Norman\'s close calls lurked in the memories of so many Australians on Monday.

They woke up, nervously turned on the TV or radio or went online and discovered Adam Scott was still going strong at the Masters. \n ... Aussie Alex Gatecrashes Finals Fever Party Brisbane Times - Sep 21, 2012 ' Del Piero arrives, Australia already in love with \'\'The Little Painter\'\' ... ANZ Stadium hasn\'t had crowds like this since <mark>Cathy Freeman</mark> ... Sheens on the brink at Concord ... Secret Admirer hiding from nobody ... Heskey\'s coming, too.' Oscar Pistorius Revolutionizes Olympic Notions Huffington Post - Aug 04, 2012 '\n LONDON -- There are times when history only becomes clear with hindsight and others â rarer, more goose-bumpy â when you actually feel it being made. Oscar Pistorius revolutionizing our notions of what is possible with every clink, clink of his prosthetic legs on the London Olympic running track was one such moment. \n\n A double-amputee, tearing down the finish straight on carbon-fiber blades. You almost had to rub your eyes to believe it. Then again, Pistorius\' gift to us all i...

Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Cathy Freeman. CHILDHOOD 1973 Birth Born on February 16, 1973. 1978 5 Years Old Her parents divorced in 1978. … Read More Freeman has described how she has been influenced by early experiences with racism and also by her BahÃ¡'Ã­ Faith. Freeman was raised a Baha'i, and says of her faith, "I'm not a devout Baha'i but I like the prayers and I appreciate their values about the equality of all human kind". Freeman's mother Cecelia (nÃ©e Sibley) was born in the Aboriginal community on Palm Island. Freeman's father was Normane Fisher; Normane was raised by his mother Geraldine Roy and his stepfather Claude Freeman. Freeman's late grandfather, Frank Fisher was an outstanding Rugby League player.

Read Less TEENAGE 1987 - 1988 2 More Events 1987 14 Years Old In 1987, Freeman moved on to Kooralbyn International School to be coached professionally by Romanian Mike Danila, who became her first coach and later a key influence throughout her career; he provided a strict training regime for the young athlete. 1988 15 Years Old In 1988, she was awarded a scholarship to an exclusive girls' school, Fairholme College in Toowoomba. 1989 16 Years Old In a competition in 1989, Freeman ran 11.67s in the 100 metres and Danila began to think about entering her in the Commonwealth Games Trials in Sydney. Show Less In 1990, Freeman was chosen as a member of Australia's 4 Ã 100 m relay team for the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand. … Read More The team won the gold medal, making Freeman the first ever Aboriginal Commonwealth Games gold medallist, as well as one of the youngest, at 16 years old.

Read Less She moved to Melbourne in 1990 after the Auckland Commonwealth Games. … Read More Shortly after moving to Melbourne Nic Bideau, her manager, introduced Freeman to athletics coach Peter Fortune, who would become Freeman's coach for the rest of her career. Read Less She was then selected to represent Australia at the 1990 World Junior Championships in Athletics in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. … Read More There, she reached the semi-finals of the 100 m and placed fifth in the final of the 400 m.<br /><br /> Freeman competed in her second World Junior Championships in Seoul, South Korea. She competed only in the 200 m, winning the silver medal behind China's Hu Ling. Read Less 1992 19 Years Old Also in 1992 she travelled to her first Olympic Games, reaching the second round of her new specialty event; the 400 metres. TWENTIES 1993 20 Years Old At the 1993 World Championships in Athletics Freeman competed in the 200 m, reaching the semi-finals.

Show Less 1994 was Freeman's breakthrough season, when she entered into the world's elite for the first time. Competing at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada, Freeman won gold in both the 200 m and 400 m. … Read More She also competed as a member of Australia's 4 Ã 100 m squad, winning the silver medal and as a member of the 4 Ã 400 m team, who finished first but were later disqualified. Read Less During the 1994 season, Freeman took 1.3 seconds from her 400 m personal best, achieving 50.04 seconds. … Read More She also set all-time personal bests in the 100 m (11.24) and 200 m (22.25). Read Less 1995 22 Years Old Although a medal favourite at the 1995 World Championships in Athletics in Sweden, Freeman finished fourth. … Read More She also reached the semi-finals of the 200 m.

Read Less Show Less … Freeman was the first Australian Indigenous person to become a Commonwealth Games gold medallist at age 16 in 1990. 1994 was her breakthrough season. At the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada, Freeman won gold in both the 200 m and 400 m. Read Less She also won the silver medal in the 1996 Olympics and came first at the 1997 World Championships, in the 400 m event. … Read More In 1998 Freeman took a break from running due to injury. Read Less Freeman made more progress during the 1996 season, setting many personal bests and Australian records. By this stage, she was the biggest challenger to France's Marie-JosÃ© PÃ©rec at the 1996 Olympics. … Read More She eventually took the silver medal behind PÃ©rec, in an Australian record of 48.63 seconds. This is still the sixth fastest time ever and the second fastest since the world record was set in Canberra, Australia in 1985.

Only Sanya Richards-Ross has come within a quarter of a second of Freeman's time since. PÃ©rec's winning time of 48.25 is the Olympic record and the third fastest ever. Read Less 1997 - 1998 2 More Events 1997 24 Years Old In 1997, Freeman won the 400 m at the World Championships in Athens, with a time of 49.77 seconds. … Read More Her only loss in the 400 m that season was in Oslo where she injured her foot. Read Less 1998 25 Years Old Freeman took a break for the 1998 season, due to injury. Show Less She returned from injury in form with a first place in the 400 m at the 1999 World Championships. … Read More She announced her retirement from athletics in 2003.<br /><br /> In 2007 she founded the Cathy Freeman Foundation.<br /><br /> Cathy Freeman began athletics at the age of 2. Her first coach was her stepfather, Bruce Barber.

By her early teens she had a collection of regional and national titles, having competed in the 100 m, 200 m, high jump and long jump. Read Less Upon her return to the track in 1999, Freeman did not lose a single 400 m race, including at the World Championships. Freeman had a long-term romantic relationship with Nick Bideau, her manager, that ended in acrimony and legal wranglings over Freeman's endorsement earnings. Freeman married Alexander "Sandy" Bodecker, a Nike executive and 20 years her senior, in 1999. Show Less … Catherine Astrid Salome "Cathy" Freeman, OAM (born 16 February 1973) is an Australian former sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. She would occasionally compete in other track events, but 400m was her main event. Her personal best of 48.63 currently ranks her as the sixth fastest woman of all time, set while finishing second to Marie-Jose Perec's number-three time at the 1996 Olympics.

Read Less She became the Olympic champion for the women's 400 metres at the 2000 Summer Olympics, at which she lit the Olympic Flame. Her winning streak continued into the 2000 season, despite PÃ©rec's return to the track. Freeman was the home favourite for the 400 m title at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, where she was expected to face-off with rival PÃ©rec. … Read More This showdown never happened, as PÃ©rec left the Games after what she describes as harassment from strangers. Freeman won the Olympic title in a time of 49.11 seconds, becoming only the second Australian Aboriginal Olympic champion (the first was Freeman's 4x400 teammate Nova Peris-Kneebone who won for field hockey 4 years earlier in Atlanta). After the race, Freeman took a victory lap, carrying both the Aboriginal and Australian flags. This was despite the fact that unofficial flags are banned at the Olympic Games and the Aboriginal flag, while recognised as official in Australia, is not a national flag, nor recognised by the International Olympic Committee. Freeman also made the final of the 200 m, coming sixth.

In honour of her gold medal win in Sydney, she represented Oceania in carrying the Olympic flag at the opening ceremonies of the next Olympics, in Salt Lake City, joining Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Africa), John Glenn (The Americas), Kazuyoshi Funaki (Asia), Lech WaÅÄsa (Europe), Jean-Michel Cousteau (Environment), Jean-Claude Killy (Sport), and Steven Spielberg (Culture). Read Less 2001 28 Years Old … Throughout her career, Freeman regularly competed in the Victorian Athletic League where she won two 400 m races at the Stawell Gift Carnival. Read Less Freeman did not compete during the 2001 season. Sydney 2000 Olympic Games | Britannica.com Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Alternative Title: Games of the XXVII Olympiad Related Topics Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, athletic festival held in Sydney that took place Sept. 15–Oct. 1, 2000. The Sydney Games were the 24th occurrence of the modern Olympic Games . An official poster from the 2000 Summer Olympics held in Sydney, Australia.

© Nick Wilson—Allsport/Getty Images Sydney was narrowly chosen over Beijing as host city of the 2000 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was attracted to the city’s long history of enthusiasm for sports , its promise to use recovered toxic wastelands as sites for sporting venues , and its plan to involve the smaller countries of Oceania in hosting activities. Despite some cost overruns and a ticket scandal, the preparations and the Games themselves went smoothly. The opening ceremonies celebrated the history of Australia , especially the unique culture and contributions of the Aborigines, the indigenous people of the continent. The high point of the opening ceremonies came when Aborigine runner Cathy Freeman lit the Olympic flame. She later won the gold medal in the 400-metre event. The accomplishments and recognition of Freeman were an important milestone for Australian Aborigines, who were still struggling for their place in Australian society (see Sidebar: Cathy Freeman: The Heart of a Nation ). Cathy Freeman taking a victory lap at the Olympic Games in Sydney, 2000. Reuters/Corbis The Olympic Flame @ Sport.y2u.co.uk Winter Olympics Olympic Flame The Olympic Flame or Olympic Fire is a symbol of the Olympic Games.

Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece, when a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics. The fire was reintroduced at the Olympics in 1928, and it has been part of the modern Olympic Games ever since. The modern torch relay was introduced by Adolf Hitler, at the Berlin Games of 1936, as part of an effort to turn the games into a glorification of the Third Reich [1]. But despite its Nazi origin, the torch ceremony is still practiced as of 2006. Usage Traditionally, the Olympic Torch is "lit by the Sun on Mount Olympus" and the torch carrier brings the Flame on foot to the site of the Olympic Games. The Olympic Torch is nowadays ignited several months before the opening celebration of the Olympic Games at the site of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece. Eleven priestesses (played by actresses) light the fire by placing a torch in a concave parabolic mirror which concentrates rays from the Sun. The torch is then transported to the host city of the upcoming Olympics by means of a torch relay.

Though traditionally, the fire is carried on foot, other means of transportation have been used as well. The runners have included athletes and celebrities, but many previously 'unknown' people have also carried it, often chosen for their personal merits and achievements. The Olympic Torch Relay ends on the day of the opening ceremony in the central stadium of the Games. The final carrier is often kept secret until the last moment, and is usually a sports celebrity of the host country. The final bearer of the torch runs towards the cauldron, usually placed at the top of a grand staircase, and then uses the torch to start the flame in the stadium. It is generally considered a great honour to be asked to light the Olympic Flame. After being lit, the flame continues to burn throughout the celebration of the Olympics and is extinguished at end of the closing ceremony of the Games. History For the ancient Greeks, fire had divine connotations ï¿½ it was thought to have been stolen from the gods by Prometheus. Therefore, fire was also present at many of the sanctuaries in Olympia. A fire permanently burned on the altar of Hestia in Olympia. During the Olympic Games, which honoured Zeus, additional fires were lit at his temple and that of his wife, Hera.

The modern Olympic flame is ignited at the site where the temple of Hera used to stand. Fire did not appear at the modern Olympics until 1928. Dutch architect Jan Wils had included a tower in his design for the Olympic stadium for the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics and came up with the idea of having a fire burn throughout. On July 28, 1928 an employee of the Amsterdam electricity board lit the first Olympic fire in this so-called Marathontower, known as the "KLM's ashtray" by the locals. The idea of an Olympic Flame was met with enthusiasm, and was incorporated as a symbol of Olympism. German sports official and sports scientist Carl Diem conceived the idea of an Olympic torch relay for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. More than 3,000 runners carried the torch from Olympia to Berlin. German track and field athlete Fritz Schilgen was the last to carry the torch, igniting the flame in the stadium. The torch relay also became part of the Olympic Games.

The Olympic Flame burned at the Winter Olympics in 1936 and 1948, but the first torch relay occurred at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo. The fire was not ignited in Olympia, but in Morgedal, Norway, in the fireplace of the home of Sondre Norheim, who pioneered the sport of skiing. The fire was also lit there in 1960 and in 1994. Except for 1956, the relay started in Olympia for all other Winter Games. In 1956, the relay began in Rome. Although most of the time the torch with the Olympic Flame is still carried by runners, it has been transported in many different ways. The fire travelled by boat in 1948 to cross the English Channel, and it was first transported by aeroplane in 1952, when the fire travelled to Helsinki. In 1956, the equestrian events were held separately because of strict quarantine regulations in Australia. All carriers in the torch relay to Stockholm, where these events were held instead, travelled on horseback.

Remarkable means of transportation were used in 1976, when the fire was transformed to an electronic pulse. From Athens, this pulse was carried by satellite to Canada, where a laser beam was used to re-light the fire. In 2000, the torch was carried under water by divers near the Great Barrier Reef. Other unusual means of transportation include an Native American canoe, a camel, and Concorde. In 2004, the first global torch relay was undertaken, in a journey that lasted 78 days. The Olympic flame covered a distance of more than 78,000 km in the hands of some 11,300 torchbearers, traveling to Africa and Latin America for the first time, visiting all previous Olympic cities and finally returning to Athens for the 2004 Summer Olympics. When the Olympic flame comes to the Panathinaiko Stadium stadium of the 1896 Summer Olympics to start the global torch relay the night was very windy and the torch, lit by the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaski , blew out due to wind, but was re-lit.

This was the only time that the Olympic torch flame was put out. Another means of catching attention has been the lighting of the fire in the stadium. At the 1992 Barcelona Games, Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo shot a burning arrow into the cauldron from a platform at the opposite end of the stadium. Two years later, the Olympic fire was brought into the stadium of Lillehammer by a ski jumper. At the Sydney Olympics in 2000 the cauldron carrying the flame became stuck on the tower for about three minutes, then continued on its way. According to Trevor Connell (who works for Australasian Special Events), there were several theories as to what happened, "First ï¿½ a computer and/or mechanical hiccup. The other is that in order to keep the trick a secret it was never tested in full mode. The ring was hauled up by a counterbalance system, which was only tested in a 'dry run'. On the night the ring was loaded with fuel, which threw the balance out.

Once enough fuel had burnt off the system balanced and then started its journey up the incline." [2] Lighters Over the years, it has become a tradition to let famous athletes or former athletes be the last runner in the relay. The first well-known athlete to light the fire in the stadium was nine-fold Olympic Champion Paavo Nurmi, who excited the home crowd in 1952. Other famous last bearers of the torch include French football star Michel Platini (1992), heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali (1996) and Australian aboriginal runner Cathy Freeman (2000). On other occasions, the people who lit the fire in the stadium are not famous, but nevertheless symbolise Olympic ideals. Japanese runner Yoshinori Sakai was born in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the day the nuclear weapon Little Boy destroyed that city. He symbolised the rebirth of Japan after the Second World War when he opened the 1964 Tokyo Games. At the 1976 Games in Montreal, two teenagers ï¿½ one from the French-speaking part of the country, one from the English-speaking part ï¿½ symbolised the unity of Canada.

(Folklore has it that the two were later married, but that was not the case.) Below is a full list of all persons who ended the Olympic Torch Relay by lighting the flame in the stadium. 1936 Summer Olympics: Fritz Schilgen, a track athlete. 1948 Summer Olympics: John Mark, a track athlete. 1952 Winter Olympics: Eigil Nansen, the grandson of polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen 1952 Summer Olympics: Paavo Nurmi, winner of nine Olympic gold medals in distance running in the 1920s. 1956 Winter Olympics: Guido Caroli, a speed skater who participated in the 1948, 1952 and 1956 Olympics. Skating with the torch, he tripped over a television cable but kept the flame burning. 1956 Summer Olympics: Ron Clarke and Hans Wikne (Stockholm). Long distance runner Clarke would later win an Olympic bronze medal in 1964 ; Hans Wikne later participated in the 1964 Olympics.

1960 Winter Olympics: Ken Henry, Olympic champion in 500 m speed skating at the 1952 Games. 1960 Summer Olympics: Giancarlo Peris, track athlete of Greek descent. 1964 Winter Olympics: Joseph Rieder, a former alpine skier who had taken part in the 1956 Olympics. 1964 Summer Olympics: Yoshinori Sakai, track and field athlete, born on the day the atom bomb exploded over his native Hiroshima. 1968 Winter Olympics: Alain Calmat, former figure skater, winner of the silver medal in the 1964 Olympics. 1968 Summer Olympics: Norma Enriqueta Basilio de Sotelo, a sprinter who participated in these Olympics. She was the first woman to be the last torch bearer. 1972 Winter Olympics: Hideki Takada, a student and speed skater. 1972 Summer Olympics: Gï¿½nther Zahn, a middle distance runner. 1976 Winter Olympics: Christl Haas and Josef Feistmantl.

Haas won the Olympic downhill title in 1964; Feistmantl won the luge doubles in the same year. 1976 Summer Olympics: Stï¿½phane Prï¿½fontaine and Sandra Henderson, two teenagers. 1980 Winter Olympics: Charles Kerr, a psychiatrist from Arizona who had been elected from all bearers to run the final part. 1980 Summer Olympics: Sergey Belov, basketball player who won four Olympic medals, including a gold in 1972. 1984 Winter Olympics: Sandra Dubravčič, a figure skater who participated in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics. 1984 Summer Olympics: Rafer Johnson, winner of the decathlon at the 1960 Olympics. 1988 Winter Olympics: Robyn Perry, a 12-year-old schoolgirl and figure skater. 1988 Summer Olympics: Sohn Kee-chung, marathon gold medalist in 1936, carried the torch into the stadium, and the relay was continued by Chung Sun-Man, Kim Won-Tak and Sohn Mi-Chung, three young track and field athletes.

Kim took part in the Olympic marathon. 1992 Winter Olympics: Michel Platini and Franï¿½ois-Cyrille Grange, both football players. Platini took part in the Olympics in 1976; Grange was eight years old at the time. 1992 Summer Olympics: Antonio Rebollo, an archer who competed in the Paralympic Games. 1994 Winter Olympics: Crown Prince Haakon of Norway. Both his father and grandfather took part in the Olympics. 1996 Summer Olympics: Muhammad Ali, the boxer who, then still under the name Cassius Clay, won Olympic gold in 1960. 1998 Winter Olympics: Midori Ito, figure skater, winner of Olympic silver in 1992. 2000 Summer Olympics: Cathy Freeman, a track and field athlete. She won the gold medal in the 400 m at these Olympics. 2002 Winter Olympics: The entire U.S. ice hockey team that won the Olympic gold medal in 1980.

2004 Summer Olympics: Nikolaos Kaklamanakis, windsurfer (Olympic Windsurfing Class), 1996 Olympic gold medalist, 2004 Olympic silver medalist. (Interestingly, the Athens flame was also "blown out" at the end of the Games by 10-year old Fotini Papeleonidopoulou.) Cauldron The cauldron and the pedestal it sits on are always the subject of unique and often dramatic design. These also tie in with how the cauldron is lit during the Opening Ceremony. In Barcelona in 1992, an archer shot a flaming arrow immediately over the cauldron to light it. In Atlanta in 1996, the cauldron was an artistic scroll decorated in red and gold. At the 1996 Summer Paralympics, the scroll was lit by a paraplegic climber hoisting himself up a rope to the cauldron.

References Olympische Spiele ï¿½ Die Chronik by Volker Kluge (five parts) The Olympic Flame Burns In The Reconstructed Roman Stadium., Athens, Attica, Greece Email this page to a friend Text and images from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. under the GNU Free Documentation License - Disclaimers . Whilst every effort is made to ensure that all information included in our website is accurate, users are advised that they should take appropriate precautions to verify such information. Y2U.co.uk expressly disclaims all liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage occasioned by the user's reliance on any statements, information, or advice contained in this web site. This Site is neither endorsed or connected in any way with organisations or individuals mentioned on this page. Published by Y2U.co.uk

Question: Which sprinter lit the Olympic flame at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Australia?
Answer: Cathy Freeman